Hootsuite Considers To Go Public Sooner After Shopify's IPO Success

Following the almost $2 billion stock market debut of Shopify, Hootsuite's chief executive teases that the company might also start to tap public markets sooner than it is expected.

Shopify's successful initial public offering seems to have prompted a raft of promising technology companies, including Hootsuite, in a revival of public capital-raising that would enhance a commodity-heavy equity market bashed by plunging oil and metal prices.

It was noted that Shopify's shares drastically grew as much as 69% in the e-commerce software maker's release on Thursday before concluding a 51% increase at $US25.68, giving it an almost $2 billion total value.

Hootsuite, a Vancouver-based company which sells analytical social media software to big businesses has grown similar in size to the Ottawa-based Shopify. The e-commerce software seller has doubled its revenue to $105 million last 2014 and had 632 workers as of March this year. Hootsuite on the other hand, has almost a thousand employees and around 75% of the Fortune 1000 are its customers.

With the company's rapid growth, Ryan Holmes, Hootsuite chief executive, admitted that IPO could also possibly be on the list of their options. With Shopify's recent flourishing launch, there is a possibility that Hootsuite would do the same as well.

"I've talked about 18 to 24 months, but I'm very bullish given the success that Shopify has had, and maybe we will want to speed that up a little bit," Holmes said at the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association's annual conference in Vancouver.

Executives at the conference also think that Shopify's path really is something that they will consider once an opportunity is given.  "It does nothing to slow it down," D2L's John Baker said. "If anything it reinforces that that's a great viable option for us if we choose to go down that path in the future."

While Shopify's success might lead more of the companies to consider IPO as an option, Hootsuite's Holmes believes that there is no reason to rush and that he wants his business to do it for the right reason.  It may not be now but he still thinks his company is moving closer to IPO.